


heart on your sleeve

by nikkiRA



Category: Persona 5
Genre: First Kiss, Kissing, M/M, Status Effects, Truth Serum, forcibly admitting your feelings, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25227415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikkiRA/pseuds/nikkiRA
Summary: “We got attacked by a group of shadows,” she says. “They hit Crow with something… weird.”“From what we can tell,” Futaba explains, “It seems to be a physical effect that corresponds with his emotional feelings.”“He gets little hearts over his head whenever he sees you,” Ryuji finally says. “We think the more hearts you have, the more he likes you.”Makoto says, in a slightly strained voice, “I beg your pardon?”
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 28
Kudos: 354
Collections: Marigolds Discord Recs





	heart on your sleeve

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired by [i [heart] you by writeonclara ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15618426), a fantastic stucky fic that i highly recommend. 
> 
> this is weird as hell lmao enjoy

The decision to split up isn’t one he’s particularly fond of, but with so many shadows chasing after them it’s quickly decided that it’s the best option; there are too many to fight, and even if he’s itching to attack, a quick look at his team shows that all of them are too low on health and stamina to be of much use. 

Well -- almost all of them. He indicates to Akechi to go with one group, while he goes with the other. That way there will be at least one person with each group who still has some fight in them. He takes Sumire, Makoto, Morgana, and Yusuke, while Akechi and Ann, Ryuji, Futaba, and Haru all head in a different direction, with plans to meet at the last safe room. 

They manage to avoid most of the shadows, but a few of them catch up. He and Makoto are able to mostly take care of it, since Yusuke and Sumire are almost completely depleted and Morgana has barely any stamina left. It slows them down a fair bit, and by the time they reach the safe room, the others are already there. He sees all of them standing outside the safe room, which is odd, but he very quickly realizes another problem. 

“Where’s Crow?” He asks, and if his voice is a little sharper than usual no one mentions it. 

“He’s locked himself in the safe room,” Ryuji says, sounding more amused than worried. 

“Why?” Makoto asks. Ann laughs a little. 

“We got attacked by a group of shadows,” she says. “They hit Crow with something… weird.”

“Weird  _ how?”  _ Ren asks. 

“It’s a little hard to explain,” Futaba says. Ren waits, and tries not to be too impatient. “It doesn’t seem dangerous, it’s… well, it’s kind of funny, actually.”

“Can somebody please explain what’s going on?” Makoto asks, voice sharp. He’s never been so thankful for her. “What kind of ailment was he hit with? Have you tried to heal him?”

“I tried,” Haru says. “It didn’t work.”

“You still haven’t explained what it is,” Ren says. 

“From what we can tell,” Futaba explains, “It seems to be a physical effect that corresponds with his emotional feelings.”

“In English, maybe?” Morgana asks. 

“He gets little hearts over his head whenever he sees you,” Ryuji finally says. “We think the more hearts you have, the more he likes you.”

“Haru and I each got one,” Ann says. “Ryuji got half a heart --”

“I don’t like the bastard either,” Ryuji mutters. 

“And Futaba got three, which she won’t shut up about.”

Futaba lets out a little laugh, but the rest of them are silent. Eventually Makoto says, in a slightly strained voice, “I beg your pardon?”

“You kind of got to see it to believe it,” Ann says. “And he’s locked himself in the safe room.”

“I told him he’d be leaving us at the mercy of shadows but I don’t think he cared much,” Ryuji says. 

“You’re just bitter because you only got half a heart,” Futaba says gleefully. Ryuji whirls on her. 

“I am not! What do I care if some jackass doesn’t like me?”

Futaba opens her mouth to respond, but Ren cuts in, walking between them and effectively cutting them off. He knocks on the door to the safe room. 

“Crow,” he says, pitching his voice low. “Let me in.”

“Just pass me a healing item and we can move on,” comes Akechi’s voice. Ren sighs.

“I don’t know what’s going to work. Just let me in.”

“No.”

“Don’t be so difficult,” he says, which is like telling the sky not to be blue. 

“You just want to see,” Akechi says accusingly. 

“See what?” Ren says. He can practically hear Akechi roll his eyes, so he tries a different tactic. “If you don’t open the door I’ll just kick it down.”

“Is that supposed to impress me?” Akechi says sardonically. 

“Did it?”

There is silence, and Ren is starting to think he’s going to actually have to break the door down when, finally, it opens. Ren looks back at the rest of the team with a warning glance, but as he walks into the room, he locks it behind him anyway. 

Just in case.

* * *

Akechi is having a horrible fucking day, and he’s feeling fucking  _ murderous.  _ It’s not enough that he had destroyed the shadows that did this to him, because even if they were dead this wretched status ailment was persisting. It had been mortifying enough for Futaba and the others to see, especially since now he’s certain the girl will never let him live it down. It’s not that he  _ likes  _ her, really, it’s just… she doesn’t annoy him as much as the others. 

But he could live with that. It was embarrassing, but he could handle it. But under  _ no circumstances  _ did he want Ren  _ anywhere near him.  _

But of course, Ren always had to be difficult. So when it becomes clear that he won’t attempt to heal Akechi without coming in, he unlocks the door and then sits at the table, throwing off his helmet and hiding his head in his arms. He’s learned that if he doesn’t look at someone, the wretched fucking curse won’t activate. 

He hears the door close, hears Ren throw the lock. He has to resist the urge to look up at him, because he always wants to look at him, but Akechi would gouge out his own eyes before he willingly shows Ren what would happen if he looked at him. 

“Hi,” Ren says, and Akechi can hear the goddamn smirk in his voice, sharp as a knife. He sounds different in the Metaverse, more like himself, not hidden behind layers of falsity and politeness. The confident lilt to his voice makes Akechi’s stomach do complicated flips, and he hates himself for it. 

He loves that he’s the only one who really gets to see this. He  _ loves,  _ he loves, he loves, and that’s the fucking problem. 

“Don’t be so goddamn smug, just heal me already.”

He can hear Ren circle around him before he pulls out the chair beside him. His knee bumps Akechi’s as he spreads out. “No,” he says, simply, and Akechi almost looks up at him in surprise. 

“I beg your pardon?” He says, voice deathly polite, but it’s hard to be intimidating when you’re hiding your face, and besides, Ren had never been afraid of him anyway. 

“I want to see,” Ren says. He must cross his legs, because his foot brushes against Akechi’s leg, sliding up his calf, and he desperately hopes Ren doesn’t notice the way he shivers, the way his body arches towards him without his consent. 

“Absolutely not,” he says firmly. He hears the creak of the chair as Ren leans back. 

“Why not?”

“Because it’s… none of your business.”

“Really?” He can perfectly envision Ren’s arched eyebrow. “How you feel about me isn’t any of my business?”

“You know how I feel about you.”

“Ah, yes,” Ren says lightheartedly. “You  _ hate  _ me. Ryuji got half a heart, I heard. Does that mean I would get less?”

“Are you going to heal me or not?”

Ren taps his foot against Akechi’s shin again. “Futaba got three,” he continues, as if Akechi hadn’t spoken. “She’s very excited about it. You’ll never live it down.”

Akechi wonders if maybe this whole experience is actually just hell. His own personal hell, designed exclusively for him. 

“What do you  _ want,  _ Ren?”

“Oh, come on. You’re telling me if the roles were reversed you wouldn’t want to know? You’re always complaining that you can’t read me.”

“But you seem to have no trouble reading  _ me.  _ And for the record, no, I would not want to know.”

“Why not?” Ren asks; he seems genuinely confused. 

“Because it is only going to make  _ everything harder,”  _ Akechi hisses. Ren shifts in the chair again. 

“What does that mean?”

It means the days are counting down to their deadline. It means time is running out. It means he remembers dying in the engine room of Shido’s twisted heart, and in a few weeks time he’ll be right back there where he belongs, dead and forgotten, and so even if he wanted to show Ren -- even if he wanted him to see the contents of Akechi’s heart laid bare, it won’t stop true reality from claiming him. No matter what Maruki’s power trip made him think, there was no power over death. 

Ren sighs; the chair creaks with more movement. “As usual, you seem to know more than you let on. Fine, I know how to pick my battles.”

Akechi laughs in surprise. “No you don’t.”

Ren hums, as if this fact were at all debateable. “Let me try a Persona first,” he says, and Akechi feels him stand to summon one. 

And he says, “Wait.”

He’s not sure why he says it. But for some reason, the thought of him dying without Ren knowing is so much worse than the thought of him finding out. 

He lifts his head, and he sees Ren’s eyes, and he just has time to notice that he is not wearing his mask before -- 

Ren’s eyes widen to the size of dinner plates as heart, after heart, after  _ motherfucking heart,  _ appear over Akechi’s head. Ren follows them with his eyes, mouth gaping open. He reaches up to touch one, finger reaching out, and when he makes contact it dissolves into smoke around them. 

Akechi drops his head back into his arms. Ren is laughing, now, and Akechi takes a quick peek up to see that he is still poking the hearts, his eyes sparkling and his mouth stretched in a wide grin and God, he’s so fucking beautiful, Akechi wants to murder him, wants to do it properly this time, what gave him the  _ fucking right -- _

“Holy shit, Akechi,” he says, sounding almost breathless.

Akechi grunts before saying, “Will you heal me now?”

“I want to count.”

Akechi is so annoyed that he lifts his head without even thinking, ready to chew Ren out, but the way Ren looks at him as hearts start appearing above his head again proves that this is exactly what Ren had wanted. 

“Oh, I hate you,” he says viciously, a statement completely undermined by the dozens of hearts floating around the room. Ren laughs, light and happy, and Akechi watches him smile as he tracks the hearts with his eyes, and he can’t help but hate himself for leaving him, even if it wasn’t his choice to come back. 

“God, I am never going to let you live this down,” Ren says happily. 

Akechi closes his eyes. 

“Will you just heal me?” He says, massaging his temples. He feels a finger on his chin and he opens his eyes to see Ren sitting on the chair across from him again, looking at him in concern. 

“Are you okay?”

Akechi rolls his eyes. “I’m manifesting hearts, Ren, what do you think?”

“It’s more than that,” Ren says, infuriatingly. Akechi glares at Ren as fiercely as he can, tries to ignore the quantifiable proof of his affection as it bounces between them. 

“Because you know me  _ so  _ well, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do,” Ren says. Akechi’s lip curls. “You’ve been hiding something from me.”

“I’m hiding a lot of things from you, Amamaya. You’ll have to narrow that down.”

They stare at each other; a heart floats between them and hits Ren on the nose, breaking apart, and his nose scrunches up as he inhales the smoke, and it's so disgustingly  _ cute _ , and Akechi quite literally cannot stop himself from leaning forward and kissing him. 

Ren kisses him back; of course he does. Akechi has always known that he would. The problem has never been the possibility of his heart breaking -- the problem has always been how hard Ren’s heart is going to break, when this is over. But Akechi kisses him anyway, eager and hungry and clumsy, and Ren responds just as eagerly, pulling Akechi forward until he’s seated completely in Ren’s lap, hands tracing the lines of Akechi’s body. 

“Why do you have so many buckles,” he mutters when they pull away, and Akechi bites down on his lower lip. 

“I didn’t fucking design it,” he says peevishly. Ren laughs and grabs a fistful of Akechi’s hair, dragging him back down for another kiss. 

From outside the room, Ann says, “Uh, are you guys okay in there?”

Ryuji says, “Crow didn’t try to kill you again, did he?”

Futaba says, “You guys know I can see your heat signatures, right?”

Akechi bolts off Ren’s lap, scrambling back until his back hits the wall. Ren grins at him, lips obscenely wet, fucking  _ Christ,  _ was he for real? Why did the simple fucking sight of him make something clench uncomfortably in Akechi’s chest every time he sees him?

“We’re fine,” Ren says loudly. “Just trying to find the right healing spell.”

“How many hearts appeared for you?” Yusuke asks. Ren winks at Akechi. 

“Don’t worry about it,” he says, getting up and walking back over to Akechi. Akechi eyes him warily, but all he does is put his mask back on and summon a Persona. He cycles through a few different spells, but Akechi doesn’t pay attention to them, just closes his eyes and grits his teeth. 

“Does it hurt?” Ren asks, sounding concerned. Akechi shakes his head, because it doesn’t, not really, it’s just -- Ren’s healing just felt  _ different  _ than the others’. 

Eventually he opens his eyes, finds Ren’s dark gaze fixated on him. Ren’s eyes flick up, and Akechi watches him smile sadly. 

“It worked,” he says. “No more hearts.”

“Thank God,” he says, and he makes to move away from the wall, but Ren takes a step closer, and with his mask back on he truly is Joker, giving Akechi a look that makes it feel like his nerves are on fire. Akechi straightens up, relishes in the fact that he is the slightest bit taller than Ren, but anything he does to try and regain face is drastically undermined by the contents of his heart splayed across the room. 

“You don’t have to look  _ quite  _ so… predatory,” he says, aiming for disinterest. Ren steps even closer, and Akechi grabs a hold of his coat, keeping him in place, desperately grappling for control once again. “You’re getting awfully familiar, Ren.”

He’s still grinning; Akechi wants to wipe it off his face, even if he isn’t sure if he wants to do it with his lips or his fist. “Come to Leblanc when we get back to the real world,” he says, easy confidence in his words, as if the idea of Akechi turning him down isn’t even a possibility. Akechi hates how easy things work in Ren’s world. He hates even more that he’s right. “We can talk.”

“Talk,” Akechi drawls, raising an eyebrow. Ren tugs at one of the buckles on his thigh. 

“Talk,” he confirms. Akechi snorts softly. 

“I still don’t understand you,” he says. Ren leans in close so their noses brush. “You know Futaba can see --”

“It’ll teach her to stop snooping,” Ren says, and even if Akechi knows for a fact that it  _ won’t,  _ he doesn’t stop Ren from closing the miniscule distance and kissing him again, feeling the wall unrelenting at his back as Ren pushes him against it. 

“You’re going to regret this,” he says when Ren pulls away. “This is not going to end the way you want it to.”

Ren just grins again; this is all just a part of their game, to him. He doesn’t see the numbers counting down above Akechi’s head, doesn’t see the blade poised above his neck. Akechi leans forward and kisses him again, hopes he doesn’t taste like blood. 

“You sure they ain’t fighting, Oracle?” Ryuji’s booming voice carries through the door easily.

“Pretty sure,” Futaba says nervously. Akechi pushes Ren away, and this time he goes, stepping back and straightening out his coat as Akechi tries to remember how to move his legs. He hates how weak Ren makes him. 

There are still hearts floating around the room; Akechi watches two collide, watches as they burst into smoke, curling around each other. He feels a hand on the small of his back, and when he looks back at Ren he is back to looking like the calm, unflappable leader the rest of his teammates need. Akechi wishes they could leave the others behind so Ren will unleash himself. A heart floats towards him, and he watches Ren reach out towards it, watches the way it breaks apart and envelops him in smoke. It’s Akechi’s heart that is on display right now, but it’s Ren’s that’s going to suffer when all of this is over. 

He should leave it alone. Dead men don’t need love. 

“I’ll come to Leblanc,” he says instead. Ren’s face remains a perfect mask, but his eyes glint in triumph. He is so used to winning, and all Akechi knows how to do is lose. 

Everyone eyes them warily when they leave the safe room, and Akechi shuts the door firmly behind him, not willing to risk one of the others getting nosy and poking their head in. Futaba doesn’t make eye contact with either of them, but Makoto studies him with narrowed eyes, looking remarkably like her sister. 

“We should head back,” Ren says. He starts to walk away, and Akechi watches the others exchange looks -- but of course none of them say anything, no one speaks up. They just shrug and tail after Ren, a group of lost puppies playing follow the leader. 

Akechi follows at a distance, the most lost of all of them. 

**Author's Note:**

> twitter @felixfraldaddy


End file.
